


terror

by indecisivebehaviors



Series: Can't fight this feeling [9]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, implied/referenced PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29783157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indecisivebehaviors/pseuds/indecisivebehaviors
Summary: Johnny dreams of the past.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence, Miguel Diaz/Samantha LaRusso
Series: Can't fight this feeling [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2200365
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	terror

Daniel is still awake, sitting up in bed with a book in hand when he first hears it.

The room’s been dead silent for so long, if Johnny hadn’t fallen asleep with an arm slung over his hips, a warm very welcome weight, he might’ve forgotten that he was there entirely.

He’d fallen asleep almost as soon as he’d hit the mattress tonight, after having spent several long hours with the kids in the yard. His ribs were healing fine, if the doctor was to be believed, but he could tell that all the extra exertion was starting to take its toll. With his knee still locked up in a brace, he hadn’t been much help with the training even after he’d started to get around without the crutches, outside of occasionally fixes someone’s stance, or giving them gentle corrections in techniques he could only explain not demonstrate.

After their... unpleasant surprise visit from Kreese and Silver, Johnny had cranked the kids training up to 11, despite Daniel’s protests. Johnny was already running himself into the ground with stress.

When he hears the noise, he looks down to see Johnny’s face still partially crushed into the pillow, but there’s a noticeable grimace to his face. The change is easy to see- these days this is one of the few rare times that Johnny ever looked completely at ease.

There’s a low pained groan that makes its way out of his throat. The arm around his waist gets tighter.

He tentatively reaches down to the top of Johnny’s head, pushing the hair out his face, and he calls out softly, “Johnny?”

For a second the expression softens and he thinks whatever it was had passed.

“No...” His eyes drop back to his face. It’s pinched tight in a way that almost looks painful, “No no no, let go...” 

Daniel’s heart constricts in his chest.

He drops his hand to his shoulder, shaking it lightly, “C’mon Johnny, you gotta wake up.”

Johnny doesn’t hear him though, voice rising slowly, laced with genuine fear, “No no, stop, fuck, stop...”

Daniel shakes him harder, panic creeping into his voice, “C’mon Johnny, wake up. It’s just a nightmare.”

“No no no no!” He cries out loud enough that Daniel is sure the kids can hear him on the other side of the house, “Stop, fuck, stop, please!”

He shouts, frantic even in his own ears, “Johnny!”

“NO!” 

He has to jump back when Johnny sits bolt upright, eyes wide, taking in harsh, shallow breaths.

Daniel moves as quickly as he dares to, trying to avoid startling him. He shifts around so he can sit facing Johnny, his eyes glazed over, unseeing.

“Johnny?” the man flinches, rearing back when he reaches out, and Daniel is quick to retract his hand.

He speaks as gently as he can, “Johnny, hey, baby, look at me. It’s me, okay? You were having a nightmare. It was only a nightmare.”

Something shifts in Johnny’s expression and he can see when his eyes finally focus on his face.

He smiles softly at him, reaching up slowly, and when Johnny doesn’t flinch back he cups his face in both hands. He runs his thumbs over gently, watching as the muscles in his jaw slowly lose tension.

Distantly he can hear movement behind the door, but for now, he chooses to ignore it.

He sees the panic flash across his face, eyes flickering to the door, “The kids?”

He shushes him softly, and Johnny looks back to him, “They’re here. They’re safe. Everyone’s safe.”

The tense line of Johnny’s shoulders drops, and he sags forward, resting his forehead against his own, eyes shut against the wetness that had started to form.

“No, hey, look at me,” he coaxes Johnny into opening his eyes, “it’s okay. We’re okay.”

“Dad?” He hears Robby’s voice on the other side of the door, laced with panic.

Johnny startles, sitting up sharply with a wince and a pained groan, “ _ Shit _ .”

Daniel bites his lip, looking at him warily, and sighs, “Everything’s fine kids. It’s alright, you can come in.”

Robby is the first to enter, followed closely by Miguel, and then Sam, who’s clutching a baseball bat Daniel didn’t even know she  _ had _ , with matching looks of barely concealed panic.

“We heard shouting and...” Miguel is the first to speak, “Are you okay?”

Johnny turns away from them, grimace on his face.

“We’re okay,” Daniel faces the kids and forces a small, plaintive smile, “Robby, can you and Miguel go grab some water and your dad’s pain meds for me? They should still be in the kitchen.”

Even though they look like they want to argue they don’t, slowly going back out the door. Sam is left in the doorway, knuckles white against the wood.

“Sam, sweetheart, it’s okay, really. You can put that down now.” She doesn’t look the least bit convinced.

He hears Johnny sighs, turns back towards him, but he’s looking over at Sam now, “C’mon, princess, we’re fine. C’mere.”

She hesitates but does eventually set the bat down, walking slowly to the side of the bed. When Johnny extends an arm out, she gets up on the bed beside him and leans in when he puts an arm around her shoulder.

The boys return and don’t need permission to crowd around the bed, handing him the water and the pill bottle. He opens it, shaking out two and putting them in Johnny’s hand. He swallows them and chugs down the water with a grimace. Miguel goes around and sits at Johnny’s side, Robby sitting closer to him. 

“Dad?” Robby hesitates, “What happened?”

He looks to Johnny to answer, not wanting to say anything he doesn’t want the kids to hear, but the man only grits his teeth, his body visibly tense.

It’s silent, minutes feeling like they stretch into hours, before Miguel speaks quietly, leaning into Johnny’s side, “It’s okay if you don’t feel like talking about it, but you can if you want to.”

All at once, the rigid tension leaves his body, and his shoulders sag down, “It’s... it’s not a big deal alright? They’re normally not that bad.”

“The nightmares?” Sam asks.

“They aren’t  _ nightmares _ ,” Johnny sighs, before he looks up to meet his gaze, eyes filled with exhaustion and grief, “they’re memories.”

The realization hits him like a kick in the head, “Johnny...” He doesn’t fight it when he reaches out to take his hand.

“Seriously, it’s nothing. The brain’s just an asshole sometimes, makes me remember shit that’s better left in the past.” Johnny doesn’t even sound convinced himself.

“Is it about...?” He trails off, voice unwilling to say the words.

“84?” Johnny shrugs, “Sometimes, not always.”

“The year Mr. LaRusso beat you in the tournament?” Miguel asks and immediately looks like he regrets the words.

But Johnny doesn’t look upset by them, just endlessly tired, “Yeah the year I lost the tournament... That’s not what the dreams are about though,” He addresses him specifically, “You won, and at the time, I accepted that. They’re never about that.” His voice holds a conviction that assures him that that is the truth.

Sam leans further into his side, one of her arms wrapping around his midsection, and it almost looks like the feeling grounds him to the present, “What was this one about?”

Johnny looks to him again, eyes cautious and questioning, and when he nods, Johnny forms a small, sad smile.

“Right after the tournament, I’d more or less accepted that I’d lost. I’d fought, and fought dirty no less, and I’d still lost. There’s very little I wouldn’t give to change what I did that night,” he laughs then, and the sound feels hollow, “afterward, Kreese followed me to the parking lot, he spent the whole time egging me on, reminding me how much of loser I was, and I snapped, told him I’d tried my best. There was no shame in losing to a worthy opponent. But he didn’t like that, that I’d talked back, tried to question him. He...” he paused, clenching his eyes shut tight, “He grabbed me before I could even blink. In front of my friends, in front of everyone in that lot, he wrapped his arm around my neck and started choking me. Bobby had tried to stop him, but Kreese just pushed him to the side and held tighter,” his face drops, expression going blank, “For a second, I thought he was actually going to kill me, right there in front of everyone. Mr. Miyagi was actually the one who’d stepped up and got him to let go. I don’t remember a lot right after that.”

The silence hangs in the air for a long time before Robby asks, voice colored in disbelief, “Why would ever let him come back after that?”

“I’d spent over half my life fucking up. Doing shit I’d regret for the rest of my life. When he came back, he’d sounded sincere enough. That he’d changed, he regretted what happened, wanted to help me restore the dojo to its former glory. I wanted to believe him, I wanted to believe the man I’d thought of like a father was sorry for what he’d done,” Johnny looked back up and held his gaze, “if I was getting my second chance, how could I deny him his?”

Robby moved before anyone could react, sitting up on his knees and wrapping his arms around Johnny’s neck. The man actually looked surprised for a moment before he wrapped his free arm around him.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Robby’s voice cracks.

“Would you have believed me if I had?” Robby doesn’t answer, just holds on tighter.

He wants to cry, watching the four of them, huddled together in front of him. He forces back the tears.

When Johnny catches his eye over Robby’s shoulder, he smiles, small, sad, but genuine, and he tries to return it as best he can.

He thinks, maybe, they’ll be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> no betas here folks, just a whole lot of angst


End file.
